hello has anybody have had any good experinces at any of these upscale chain places,over at the freehold mall they just opened up a cheescake factory and a pf changs the cheescake has a one to two hour wait on weekends and had lunch at a cheescake and it was okay never tryed pf changs how do these places do it is it all hype

hi, there was a good article in the Hartford, CT (www.courant.com) about the new Cheesecake Factory that opened in West Hartford (2 - 3 hour waits!)..the article was titled "where the elite meet to wait".

There were 95 comments made by posters. (mostly saying that they feel it's overrated, etc).

Also , there is a real good thread going on right now in the "fast food forum" of roadfood.com. The thread is "well, is it worth the wait!?!?"

all this should make for some good reading/entertainment for you , plant guy!

Personally, I think some of the CCF food is real good , (beef ribs, southwestern corncakes) , other stuff is a little lackluster (burgers

)

Best part is the architecture (lots of woods), and the well trained servers.

PFC and CF are better than the average chain restaurant, but not as good as the best places. The hype is mainly since many people want a nice looking place that serves good food at a low price. People who hate chain restaurants will always hate PFC and CF because of their size and "forcing" local restaurants out of business. I have never had a bad meal at PFC or CF and they are a safe bet when better places are far away or too exotic/expensive for the dining party. Both are not worth more than a 30 min wait.

I have seen some data that would support the Starbucks Hypothesis, where chains actually help local businesses by introducing new people to a cuisine or style. I guess that people feel a chain is safer, like PFC introducing people to Chinese/Asian style food, then move up the culinary ladder - much like graduating from Folgers to Starbucks to Local Barista. I would imagine that a PFC opening in a new suburb may actually increase the number of smaller, more authentic Asian restaurants once the "meat & potatoes" crowd gets over their fear of Kung Pao.

I think these two examples (Chang's and CF) also benefit greatly from generally being located in/near shopping malls. While neither is haute cuisine, I'd definitely eat either place before getting junk from the food court.